MKUltra was an illegal program created by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to find ways to change how people think and act. The name "MKUltra" is a secret code: "MK" stands for the Office of Technical Service, and "Ultra" is a word chosen randomly from a dictionary. The program is widely criticized for breaking people's rights and showing how the CIA misused its power. Critics say it ignored people's right to agree to the experiments and harmed democratic values.
MKUltra started in 1953 and stopped in 1973. It used many methods to affect people's minds, such as secretly giving them large amounts of psychoactive drugs, especially LSD, and other chemicals without their permission. Other methods included electric shocks, hypnosis, keeping people in dark rooms for long periods, isolating them, and using verbal or physical abuse.
MKUltra followed another program called Project Artichoke. It was managed by the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence and worked with the U.S. Army's Biological Warfare Laboratories. The program did illegal things, like testing drugs on U.S. and Canadian citizens without their knowledge. MKUltra's activities were spread across more than 80 places, including colleges, hospitals, prisons, and drug companies, under the cover of research. The CIA used fake organizations to hide its role, though some leaders at these places knew about the CIA's involvement.
MKUltra was made public in 1975 by the Church Committee (named after Senator Frank Church) and President Gerald Ford's Rockefeller Commission. The CIA had ordered all MKUltra files to be destroyed in 1973, so investigators relied on the testimony of people who worked on the program and the few remaining documents. In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered 20,000 documents about MKUltra, leading to Senate hearings. Some information about MKUltra was later released to the public in 2001.
Background
During the early 1940s, Nazi scientists at concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau during World War II tested drugs on prisoners, including Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish, and other people taken as prisoners of war. They used substances such as barbiturates, morphine derivatives, and hallucinogens like mescaline to study how to create a "truth serum" that would make people unable to resist questioning. American historian Stephen Kinzer said that the CIA's MKUltra project continued these experiments by testing mescaline on people without their knowledge, similar to what happened at Dachau. After the war, many Nazi scientists worked for the U.S. government as part of Operation Paperclip, including some who later helped with MKUltra.
In 1943, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services began researching a "truth drug" to get honest answers from people during interrogations. In 1947, the U.S. Navy started Project CHATTER, which tested LSD on human subjects for the first time.
In 1950, the CIA, under General Walter Bedell Smith, launched Project Bluebird, later renamed Project Artichoke in 1951. Led by Brigadier General Paul F. Gaynor, the goal was to see if drugs like morphine, mescaline, and LSD could make people forget things or perform actions against their will. The project also tested viruses like dengue fever as possible ways to disable people.
Project Artichoke was led by Sidney Gottlieb and started in 1953 under CIA director Allen Dulles. Its aim was to develop mind-controlling drugs to use against the Soviet Union and other countries, following claims that the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea used similar methods on U.S. prisoners during the Korean War. The CIA wanted to use these techniques on its own prisoners and even tried to influence foreign leaders, including plans to drug Fidel Castro. Many experiments were done without the subjects' knowledge or consent. Some researchers were paid by the CIA without knowing their work was being used for these purposes.
MKUltra aimed to create a perfect truth serum for interrogating suspected spies and to explore ways to control the mind. One subproject, called "Perfect Concussion," planned to use low-frequency sound waves to erase memories, but the plan was never carried out.
Most records about MKUltra were destroyed in 1973 by CIA director Richard Helms, making it hard to fully understand the over 150 research projects linked to it.
MKUltra began during a time when the CIA was very worried about communism and feared a spy inside the agency. The CIA spent millions of dollars studying ways to control the mind and extract information from people during interrogations. Some historians believe one goal was to create a "Manchurian Candidate" – a person who could be controlled to act against their will.
A 1976 report by the Church Committee found that drugs were used mainly to help with interrogations, but also to harass or disable people.
In 1964, the MKULTRA program continued as MKSEARCH, which was split into two projects: MKOFTEN and MKCHICKWIT. From 1965 to 1971, the U.S. Army and CIA worked together to develop new tools for covert operations, including biological, chemical, and radioactive materials. By 1971, the CIA had gathered over 26,000 people for future testing. The CIA studied bird migration patterns for research on chemical and biological warfare, including a subproject at Pennsylvania State University called "Bird Disease Studies." MKOFTEN tested drugs on animals and humans, while MKCHICKWIT focused on finding new drugs in Europe and Asia.
In 1957, the CIA started Subproject 68 under MKUltra at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, led by psychiatrist Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron. This project tested methods like "psychic driving" and "depatterning" to control human behavior. Psychic driving involved playing recorded messages to people under the influence of drugs like LSD or barbiturates.
Experiments on Americans
CIA documents show that the agency studied "chemical, biological, and radiological" methods of mind control as part of MKUltra. They spent about $10 million, which would be roughly $87.5 million today when adjusted for inflation.
During a Senate Health Subcommittee hearing, the CIA's deputy director said that over 30 institutions and universities helped test drugs on people without their knowledge. These tests involved giving LSD to people in public places, including individuals from all social backgrounds, Native Americans, and foreigners.
The Army was tested with LSD in three phases. The first phase included more than 1,000 soldiers who volunteered for chemical warfare experiments. The second phase had 96 volunteers who received LSD to study its use in intelligence work. The third phase included projects like "Third Chance" and "Derby Hat," which tested LSD on 16 people who did not know they were part of the experiments. These individuals were later questioned during field tests.
After retiring in 1972, Sidney Gottlieb, who led MKUltra, said the program was useless. Files found in 1977 showed that experiments continued until Gottlieb ordered the program to stop on July 10, 1972.
In 1938, LSD was discovered by Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland. Early MKUltra leaders learned about LSD and wanted to use it for mind control. In the 1950s, Gottlieb arranged for the CIA to buy all available LSD for $240,000, which would be about $4.2 million today. This allowed the CIA to test LSD on people in prisons, hospitals, and other places without their knowledge.
Early CIA experiments focused on LSD-25, which became central to many MKUltra programs. The CIA wanted to know if they could make Soviet spies betray their countries and if the Soviets could do the same to the CIA's agents.
Documents obtained by John D. Marks in 1976 showed that the CIA planned to buy 10 kilograms of LSD in 1953, enough for 100 million doses. The goal was to control the global supply of the drug. The CIA later purchased some LSD from Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland.
When MKUltra began in April 1953, experiments included giving LSD to mental patients, prisoners, drug users, and prostitutes—people who could not resist. In one case, a mental patient in Kentucky received LSD for 174 days. The CIA also tested LSD on employees, soldiers, doctors, and members of the public. The aim was to find drugs that could force people to confess secrets or erase their memories. Military personnel who took the drug were threatened with punishment if they spoke about the experiments. LSD and other drugs were often given without consent, breaking the Nuremberg Code, which the U.S. agreed to follow after World War II. Many veterans who were tested later sought legal and financial help.
In "Operation Midnight Climax," the CIA created brothels in San Francisco to test LSD on men who would not talk about their experiences. Men were given LSD, and their reactions were recorded using one-way mirrors. In other tests, people were given LSD without their knowledge and questioned under bright lights while doctors took notes. Some were told they would stay on the drug longer if they did not share secrets. People tested included CIA workers, soldiers, and individuals suspected of working for the Soviet Union. Some suffered long-term health problems, and a few died. Heroin users were offered more heroin in exchange for taking LSD.
At the request of a Stanford student, Ken Kesey participated in a CIA-funded study at a veterans' hospital. The study examined the effects of LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and other drugs on people.
The CIA used LSD in interrogations, but Gottlieb believed it could be used in secret operations. He thought LSD could be given to high-ranking officials to influence meetings or speeches. He tested the drug in normal settings without warning. At first, CIA staff took part in experiments, but later, people were drugged without explanation. Some agents experienced severe reactions, such as one who became psychotic after drinking LSD in his coffee and ran through Washington, D.C., seeing monsters in cars. Experiments continued even after Frank Olson, a scientist, was secretly given LSD by his CIA supervisor and later jumped to his death from a hotel window, possibly due to depression caused by the drug. Olson had earlier questioned the morality of the project and wanted to leave the CIA.
Some people tested agreed to participate and were given even more extreme experiments. For example, seven African-American drug users in Kentucky were given LSD for 77 days in a row.
MKUltra researchers later said LSD was too unpredictable and gave up on using it as a "secret to unlock the universe." However, it remained part of the CIA's tools. By 1962, the CIA and military developed stronger drugs like BZ, which were seen as better for mind control. This caused many scientists and researchers to stop working on LSD.
Other experiments tested giving barbiturates in one arm and amphetamines in the other. The barbiturates made people sleepy, and the amphetamines were given as the person fell asleep. Other drugs tested included heroin, morphine, mescaline, psilocybin, scopolamine, alcohol, and sodium pentothal.
A 1955 MKUltra document outlined goals to find drugs that could improve thinking, mimic diseases, or cause happiness without negative effects.
Experiments on Canadians
The CIA moved some of its experiments to Canada by hiring Donald Ewen Cameron, a Scottish psychiatrist who developed the "psychic driving" idea, which interested the CIA. Cameron aimed to treat schizophrenia by removing memories and retraining the mind. He traveled weekly from Albany, New York, to Montreal to work at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University. From 1957 to 1964, he received $69,000, which was worth about $766,936 in 2024 when adjusted for inflation, to conduct MKUltra experiments. The research funds came from a CIA-linked group called the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, and internal CIA records show Cameron did not know the money was from the CIA.
In addition to LSD, Cameron tested other drugs that cause paralysis and used electroconvulsive therapy at much higher than normal levels. His "driving" experiments involved keeping subjects in drug-induced comas for weeks, sometimes up to three months, while playing repeated noises or simple phrases. These experiments often targeted patients who came to the institute for common issues like anxiety or postpartum depression. Many patients suffered lasting harm, including memory loss, inability to speak, forgetting their parents, and incontinence. Some believed their interrogators were their parents.
During this time, Cameron became the first chairman of the World Psychiatric Association and president of both the American and Canadian Psychiatric Associations. He also served on the Nuremberg medical tribunal from 1946 to 1947.
Cameron’s work was similar to that of British psychiatrist William Sargant, who conducted experiments on patients without their consent at hospitals in London and Sutton. Sargant worked with MI5, but no evidence shows his experiments were connected to intelligence agencies.
In the 1980s, some of Cameron’s former patients sued the CIA for harm caused by his experiments. A Canadian news program, The Fifth Estate, covered these cases. Their experiences were later shown in the 1998 television miniseries The Sleep Room.
Naomi Klein writes in her book The Shock Doctrine that Cameron’s research for the MKUltra project was not about mind control but about creating a scientific method to extract information from people who resisted questioning. She calls this approach "torture."
Alfred W. McCoy states that Cameron’s experiments, building on earlier work by Donald O. Hebb, provided the scientific basis for the CIA’s two-step psychological torture method. This method first caused confusion in subjects and then forced them to endure discomfort, which they could only relieve by giving up.
Secret detention camps
In the early 1950s, the United States operated in regions of Europe and East Asia, including Japan, West Germany, and the Philippines. In these areas, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established secret detention centers, known as black sites, to avoid legal consequences. The CIA captured individuals suspected of working for enemy groups or who were considered unimportant. These individuals were subjected to harsh treatment, including the use of drugs that affect the mind, electric shocks, exposure to extreme temperatures, and isolation from sensory experiences. These methods were used to study how to control and harm human minds.
Project Bluebird
In October 1950, during the Korean War, North Korean prisoners of war held by the United States were said to have been part of experiments conducted under Project Bluebird, a program that came before MK-ULTRA. According to documents made public by the National Security Archive between 2024 and 2025, these experiments included the use of different drugs and special methods for questioning. The goal of these experiments was described as "controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against such fundamental laws of nature as self-preservation."
Revelation
In 1973, during a government-wide crisis caused by the Watergate scandal, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed. As a result, most CIA documents about the project were removed, making it impossible to fully investigate MKUltra. A group of about 20,000 documents survived the destruction order because they were stored in a financial records building and were found after a FOIA request in 1977. These documents were studied during the Senate Hearings of 1977.
In December 1974, The New York Times reported that the CIA had conducted illegal activities in the United States, including experiments on citizens, during the 1960s. This report led to investigations by the U.S. Congress, called the Church Committee, and by the Rockefeller Commission, which looked into the CIA, FBI, and military intelligence agencies' illegal actions.
In the summer of 1975, reports from the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission revealed for the first time that the CIA and the Department of Defense had tested both unknowing and willing human subjects to learn how to influence and control behavior using drugs like LSD and mescaline, as well as other methods. The reports also said that at least one person, Frank Olson, died after being given LSD. Much of what the committees learned about MKUltra came from a 1963 report by the Inspector General's office, which survived the 1973 destruction order. However, this report had little detail. Sidney Gottlieb, who had led MKUltra and retired two years earlier, was questioned by the committee but claimed he remembered few details about the program.
The Church Committee, led by Senator Frank Church, concluded that "no consent was obtained from any of the subjects." The committee noted that the experiments "raise questions about the decision not to set guidelines for such research."
Following the Church Committee's recommendations, President Gerald Ford issued an Executive Order in 1976 that banned drug testing on humans without written, witnessed consent from each subject. Later orders by Presidents Carter and Reagan expanded this rule to all human experiments.
In 1977, during a Senate hearing on MKUltra, Admiral Stansfield Turner, then CIA director, said that the CIA had found about 20,000 pages of records that survived the 1973 destruction order because they were stored in a building not usually used for such documents. These files included information about funding for MKUltra projects but had few details about the program itself.
In 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy stated on the Senate floor that the CIA had worked with over 30 universities and institutions in a program that tested drugs on unknowing citizens across all social levels, including Native Americans and foreigners. Some tests involved giving LSD to people without their knowledge. At least one death, Frank Olson's, was linked to an experiment conducted nine days before his death. The CIA later admitted these tests lacked scientific purpose and that the people monitoring the experiments were not qualified scientists.
In Canada, the MKUltra issue became public in 1984 on a CBC news show. It was revealed that the CIA had funded experiments by a Canadian doctor, and the Canadian government had later given $500,000 to continue the work. This made it harder for victims to sue the CIA, as had been done in the U.S. The Canadian government later settled for $100,000 to each of 127 victims. The doctor, Ewen Cameron, died in 1967 after a heart attack. His family destroyed his personal records after his death. A 1986 report said Canadian officials were not fully aware of Cameron's experiments.
In 1994, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that between 1940 and 1974, the Department of Defense and other agencies tested dangerous substances and radiation on hundreds of thousands of people.
Based on this report and other sources, the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs concluded that the CIA and the Department of Defense gave hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD and BZ, to thousands of soldiers in the 1950s and 1960s. These tests were part of the MKUltra program, created to counter Soviet and Chinese brainwashing techniques. Between 1953 and 1964, the program included 149 projects involving drug testing and other studies on unknowing subjects.
In the 1985 court case CIA v. Sims, the U.S. Supreme Court supported the idea that the CIA could keep certain MKUltra details secret under FOIA Exemption 3. This decision allowed the CIA to withhold information, even if it seemed harmless, because sharing it might expose intelligence sources. This rule has given the CIA nearly complete protection from FOIA requests and has been used by lower courts.
Death of Frank Olson
Several deaths have been linked to Project MKUltra, including that of Frank Olson. In 1951, Olson was a United States Army biochemist and researcher in biological weapons. In 1951, academic sources connected the 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning incident to ergot poisoning from a local bakery. This explanation seemed reasonable because ergot naturally contains lysergic acid, a chemical used to make LSD.
In 1953, shortly before his death, Frank Olson left his job as acting chief of the Special Operations Division at Detrick, Maryland (later Fort Detrick), due to serious ethical concerns about his biological weapons research. His worries included the potential harm caused by such work.
In November 1953, Olson was given LSD without his knowledge or consent as part of a CIA experiment. He died after falling from a 13th-story window one week later. A CIA doctor assigned to monitor Olson claimed to have been asleep in another bed in a New York City hotel room when Olson fell to his death. At the time, Olson’s death was described as a suicide that occurred during a severe mental health crisis. The CIA’s internal investigation stated that the head of MKUltra, CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb, had conducted the LSD experiment with Olson’s prior knowledge. However, neither Olson nor the other participants were told the exact nature of the drug until about 20 minutes after they took it. The report noted that Gottlieb was reprimanded for not considering Olson’s previously diagnosed tendency toward self-harm, which may have worsened due to the LSD.
In 1975, Olson’s family received $750,000 from the U.S. government and formal apologies from President Gerald Ford and CIA Director William Colby. These apologies were limited to the issue of informed consent regarding Olson’s LSD use.
In 1977, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Human Resources wrote:
Due to the CIA’s destruction of most records, its failure to follow informed consent rules with thousands of participants, the uncontrolled nature of the experiments, and the lack of follow-up data, the full impact of MKUltra experiments, including deaths, may never be fully understood.
In 1994, Olson’s body was exhumed, and head injuries showed he had been knocked unconscious before falling from the window. This contradicted the CIA’s earlier claim that Olson’s death was a suicide. The medical examiner classified the death as a “homicide.”
Since 2001 (or earlier), the Olson family has disputed the official account of events. They believe Frank Olson was murdered because, after his LSD experience, he became a security risk who might reveal classified CIA information about which he had direct knowledge.
On November 28, 2012, the Olson family filed a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government for the wrongful death of Frank Olson. In 2013, the case was dismissed partly because of a 1976 settlement between the family and the government.
In the decision dismissing the suit, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote:
While the court must focus only on the details in the lawsuit, someone reading this might wonder that the public record supports many of the family’s claims, even if they seem unlikely.
Legal issues involving informed consent
The discoveries about the CIA and the Army led many people who were experimented on or their family members to file lawsuits against the federal government for performing experiments without getting permission from the subjects. Even though the government tried hard, and sometimes succeeded, in avoiding legal responsibility, some people who filed lawsuits received money from the government through court decisions, agreements outside of court, or special laws passed by Congress. Frank Olson's family received $750,000 through a special law passed by Congress, and both President Ford and CIA director William Colby met with Olson's family to publicly apologize.
Before these events, the CIA and the Army had worked to hide information that could show they were wrong, even as they secretly gave money to families affected by their actions. One person who was part of an Army drug experiment, James Stanley, an Army sergeant, filed a lawsuit, but it was not successful. The government claimed Stanley could not sue because of the Feres doctrine, a rule that limits lawsuits against the military.
In 1987, the Supreme Court agreed with the government in a 5–4 decision that dismissed Stanley's case: United States v. Stanley. The majority argued that "a test for legal responsibility that depends on how much a lawsuit might question military discipline and decision making would require judges to examine and interfere with military matters." In contrast, Justice William Brennan argued that protecting military discipline should not allow the government to avoid responsibility for serious violations of people's rights.
The medical trials at Nuremberg in 1947 showed the world that experimenting on people without their knowledge is morally and legally wrong. The United States Military Tribunal created the Nuremberg Code as a standard to judge German scientists who experimented on humans. However, military intelligence officials later secretly tested chemical and biological materials, including LSD, in violation of this principle.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing separately, stated: "No rule made by judges should protect the government from being held responsible for experiments done without people's knowledge or consent. The United States was involved in prosecuting Nazi officials who experimented on humans during World War II, and the standards from the Nuremberg trials clearly stated that 'voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential' to meet moral, ethical, and legal standards. If this principle is broken, society must ensure victims are compensated as much as possible by those who caused harm."
In another case, Wayne Ritchie, a former United States Marshal, claimed in 1990 that the CIA added LSD to his food or drink during a 1957 Christmas party, which led to him attempting to rob a bar and being arrested. The government admitted it had drugged people without their permission and that Ritchie's behavior was typical of someone on LSD. However, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled in 2005 that Ritchie could not prove he was a victim of the MKUltra program or that LSD caused his actions, and dismissed his case.
In Canada, a class action lawsuit about the Montreal experiments was approved by the Quebec Superior Court in 2025. A survivor, who was admitted to the Allan Memorial Institute at age 15, and a family member of a deceased patient were given the right to represent others in the case.
Notable people
Confirmed experimenters:
Alleged experimenters:
Imagine sitting back and visualizing yourself picking up a purple shell. Picture foam crests with crystal-like drops that gently fall into the morning sea, surrounded by a soft mist. Then, the drops slowly flow together into a sudden, bright sound of silver bells. If this is madness, I beg you, let me stay mad.
In popular culture
MKUltra is involved in many conspiracy theories because of its secretive nature and the loss of most records about it. This has led some people to believe that the human experiments conducted by the CIA are still happening today.